[London, ENGLAND] Two Finnish companies, Oy Arbonaut
Ltd and Benefon Oyj announced Tuesday a geomessaging
solution that will enable ISPs to offer precision
location-based services for businesses and consumers.
To create the solution, the two companies have combined
their products, Arbonaut contributing GeoMessaging Suite
1.0 to work with the Benefon Esc! GPS+GSM personal
navigation phone.
Jukka Nieminen, director of product marketing at Benefon,
said that for the first time service providers will be
able to offer precision location-based services for
mobile users.
“The Arbonaut GeoMessaging Suite 1.0 fully leverages the
unique capabilites of Benefon Esc!, enabling Arbonaut
and Benefon to offer service providers a complete end-to-end
solution for new precision location services,” confirmed
Nieminen.
Benefon’s phone uses a 12-channel GPS navigator that
accurately pinpoints the user’s location on a map.
It provides various indicators and tools, including
waypoints, routes, guide, and odometer, together with
phone and organizer functions.
Said to be ideal for “sailors, bikers and skiers,” the
Benefon Esc! can direct the user to friends, special
points of interest and services. What’s more, it is
easy to use in comparison to the navigation systems
of the past — and the user does not need any special
knowledge to get started.
“Only recently these kind of services were just
fiction, but today with the launch our first
geomessaging product we can finally say that
geomessaging has become reality,” said Risto
Jalovaara, chief executive of Arbonaut.
The Arbonaut element of the combo provides all
the messaging functionality, including support for
cross-media messages such as between phones,
e-mail and asset tracking devices. It enables
users to compose, send and store messages across
the various carrier media.
For the technically-minded, the solution uses
the new, open Mobile Phone Telematics Protocol
(MPTP) and Mobile Map Service Protocol (MMSP)
application interfaces. As Jalovaara points out,
all GSM and Internet users can use the Arbonaut
services, but with their support for precision
mobile positioning the Benefon Esc! and Benefon
Track GSM+GPS wireless instruments are proving to
be ideal clients for geomessaging.
Benefon is listed in Helsinki Stock Exchange (HEX),
while Arbonaut is venture funded by 3i Finland,
Sitra and Teknia Invest.
